Mood:
spaceyTopic: Lib Loser Stories
Russ Feingold: Terrorism Is Our Fault
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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let's go to the audio sound bites there, Alltmont. We'll start here at the top with number one. (story) "Russ Feingold, a potential anti-war candidate in the 2008 presidential field, urged fellow Democrats on Monday to show more backbone in challenging President Bush on Iraq. 'We must get out of our political foxholes and be willing to clearly and specifically point out what a strategic error the Iraq invasion has been.'" Sounds just like Mahmoud! That was Mahmoud's whole point. What do we have here? Three, four sound bites, and the first one, Feingold says the Democrats have to continue to stand up to Bush, which is laughable. As though they haven't been doing that all along. In their minds what they've been doing, apparently, has not been standing up, and they need to do more of it.
FEINGOLD: The greatest passion is for us to stand up on the critical post-9/11 issues, from Iraq, to the USA Patriot Act, to the president violating the law by authorizing illegal domestic wiretapping. The president likes to say, in response to this sort of concern, that some of us have a pre-9/11 perspective. Many Democrats and others around this country want us to point out that the White House actually has a pre-1776 perspective and that we ought to have the guts to point that out. (Applause.)
RUSH: I don't know who the audience is at this thing. At the National Press Club, you've got to figure it's some Drive-By Media people in there. It's their club. (sigh) Domestic wiretapping. Now, there's a story in the LA Times today about this. This is another See, I Told You So. "By picking Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden as the next CIA director, President Bush faces another brawl over his controversial program to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists -- including people on American soil -- without court approval. But far from fearing such a fight, the White House walked right into it by nominating the program's leading defender to head the spy agency."
On page two of this story comes this interesting little tidbit. "Still, some Democrats quietly worried Monday that their party might help the GOP by making an issue of the spy program." Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I tell you, the White House wants this fight. They know it's a slam-dunk. Nothing better than having an Air Force general in uniform up there being ripped to shreds for talking about how he wants to protect the country and accurately explain the NSA foreign surveillance program. The Democrats, by the way, have now posed an idea.
They say, "Well, you know, this is a spy program, very sensitive. We might have to go into executive session for these questions, which means closed session, which means nobody would get to see it. There would only be leaks afterwards. The leaks would probably take the form of the tough questions asked by people like Dianne Feinstein or Russ Feingold, and Leaky Pat Leahy and whoever else." But if they don't do this in public, it means they haven't got the guts for people to see what would actually transpire here, that they want to use leaks from a closed executive session. "I usually can't leak on those things, Rush, intelligence committee, you can't leak." Tell it to Pat Leahy. I don't think he's on that committee anymore because he did leak about an operation we had planned in Libya.
So that's the game plan. If they're getting cold feet they'll go into executive session, if the Republicans let them get away with it, and you never know, given some of the Republican senators. Now, I'm not mentioned in this [next bite], folks, but I know how to read the stitches on a fast ball. I know how to read the tea leaves. I think Feingold is responding to me when I said yesterday that the Hayden hearings will be a winner for Bush.
FEINGOLD: You already hear people saying that this Michael Hayden nomination will be a great opportunity for the White House to show the Democrats are soft on terrorism. You bet the pundits in this town will somehow suggest that, this too, just like my censure resolution, will cause the president's numbers to shoot up. You remember that happening, right? It didn't happen at all. But that's what they're going to say. It's not right.
RUSH: Stop the tape. Nobody joined your stupid censure resolution, and you left the floor, you skedaddled, you got out of there rather than debate it with Republicans. Nobody joined your stupid -- you know, I was thinking about Feingold. What has he ever done besides get elected? Can somebody explain one achievement of Russ Feingold? Other than the censure deal, he makes good speeches to fire up the kook base. He's a munchkin. Resume tape, Alltmont.
FEINGOLD: I take a different view with one qualification. My view is that we should appeal to basic American values in the post-9/11 world.
RUSH: Stop the tape. Do you know what those basic American values are, senator? People like me think you have forgotten them, or if you remember them you disagree with them and are trying to redefine them.
FEINGOLD: By saying that we will stand up to this administration's mistakes
in strategy in the fight against terrorism, and that we will stand up to this administration's unnecessary assault on the rule of law in the guise of the fight against terrorism.
RUSH: Well, there you have it. This is a left-wing kook view. The spy program, Bush doesn't care about finding what spies are doing in this country. He doesn't care about what Al-Qaeda might be plotting. That's just an excuse, because Bush is Bush, and he wants to spy on you. And, of course, the left-wing kooks, that's all they need to hear. They don't ask what does he want to spy on me for? What am I doing in my miserable little kook life that Bush would possibly care about? Bush is not a voyeur. Bush is in bed at 9:30 at night. The last thing George Bush cares about is what idiotic left-wing kook liberals are doing. Besides, they tell us anyway. They're all over announcing everything they're doing, they're marching in the streets. What do they need to be spied on for?
The idea that a United States senator -- and it's clear what he's doing, he's pandering, demagoguing to that base. He's trying to secure the support and the nomination from that group of people in Kooksville. But to set up this notion that Bush actually wants to spy on the American people. For what? What's he trying to learn? What's he trying to discover? Most people's lives, particularly on the kook fringe, are so dull and boring, that's why they're kook-fringe leftists. They are trying to find anything in life to give themselves some sense of relevance, some sense of mattering, some sense of importance. So they go out and they march and they beat their chests, and they get mad and they throw around all these accusations. But who in the world, I mean, would you want to spy on a liberal? I mean, they do everything they do in public anyway. They don't believe in hiding anything. I mean, it's boring to watch, discuss. And I'm sure Bush has much better things to do than that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Back now to Russ Feingold, a big finale here, the big finish. He says that Democrats have to show that 9/11 is just as personal to them as it is to those who use the issue to intimidate them as Democrats.
FEINGOLD: I say all of this in the belief that somehow we all have to be talking about not this country or that, but how we can best protect American lives at home and abroad.
RUSH: Stop the tape. Get serious. You don't care about it. If you did, you wouldn't be saying and doing 30 to 50% of the things you do. You're trying to undermine victory over this particular enemy, senator, with everything you're doing. That's why this doesn't sell. You can go out there and say, "We need to get tough. We need to show people you don't need to be intimidated. We care about America. We care about America's security." It doesn't sell, Senator. You just don't have the guys on your side to pull it off. I mean, you can say whatever you want but you don't have anybody with any practical experience in any position in the last ten years that you can point to and say, "We want to follow the lead of Democrat X." In fact, I have a story here in the stack, folks, about all the domestic spying that Feingold's hero did during World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At the appropriate time I am sure the White House is going to bring this out.
They've just got some papers out of the National Archives, some people have been writing a book and there are papers being written from the book as a result of the research that these guys have found, and he was opening people's mail. He was violating what Congress said were statutes that said he couldn't do it, yet he had judges that said he could. It's almost an exact replay of what was going on.
They loved Roosevelt, but they can't point to him as an example of how they're going to lead country in war. So who are they going to point to? They can say whatever they want, but who are they going to point to? JFK, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter? Who are they going to point to, folks? Zilch, zero, nobody. Play the rest of this, Alltmont.
FEINGOLD: This is our most solemn responsibility.
RUSH: Yep, yep.
FEINGOLD: Democrats should be especially clear that we understand the post-9/11 world. To return to the outset --
RUSH: Stop the tape. The very fact that he has to say that Democrats should be especially clear that we understand the post-9/11 world is an admission that they know the Democrats' position in a post-9/11 world is not only not unclear, it's known exactly for what it is, and it's one that doesn't take the post-9/11 world seriously and thus they can't be trusted.
FEINGOLD: I think we should show we mean it. We should show that it's just as important and personal for us as it is for those who sometimes try to use this issue to intimidate us.
RUSH: How you gonna do it? You've got your ex-president going over to the Middle East ripping our policy in Iraq, ripping the policy in the war on terror. Who you going to point to? How are you going to show everybody that it's just as important and personal for you when you have people saying, "Can't go see United 93, it's too soon. It's too soon. We can't, it's too traumatic." How in the world are you going to possibly convince people to take it seriously when you don't have anybody in your party that does. All right, this is it. He answers a question. Gets a question, Q&A, and this is right out of Shelby Steele. The question is this, and this is the club president, Jonathan Salant. He says, "Can you outline the principles on which foreign policy and national security should be based?" Listen carefully to this, folks.
FEINGOLD: The first and foremost thing is the safety and national security of the American people. The number one responsibility is to protect Americans. Now, the question of how you do that is what I discussed in my speech. It's being smart.
RUSH: Stop the tape. So he's telling this news guy, "You idiot, you ask me this? I just explained it in my speech." The truth is nobody heard him say it in the speech which is why they got the question. But he thinks he said it. Resume tape there, Alltmont.
FEINGOLD: -- understanding this connection between a violation of human rights and a countries -- the people of a country feeling that the somehow the United States helped repress them. All I have to do is mention the Shah of Iran and the whirlwind that we reaped because of our inappropriate support for the Shah. So I think that is the foundation.
RUSH: This is gibberish. This is gobbly-gook. This is wandering in vain for a cogent thought. You understand what he just said, folks? The question, "Could you outline the principles on which foreign policy and national security should be based?" He answered right out of John Kerry's handbook, going to be smart, yeah, going to do it smarter and better. And then he says, "it's understanding this connection between the violation of human rights and a countries, the people of the country feeling that somehow the US helped repress them." It's our fault, folks. This is right out of Shelby Steele. This is the guilt that people like Feingold and other liberals feel.
It's our fault we're too powerful, we're too big, we had slavery, we violate people's human rights. It's understandable that there would be terrorists, and we need to incorporate this into our foreign policy so that the next time we get attacked by a terrorist group, we must understand why and perhaps even acknowledge that we deserve this, especially if we can blame it on a former Republican president. Folks, do you hear what this guy is saying? He's asking to be taken seriously on protecting the country in a post-9/11 world and proceeds to blame this country for the fact that people around the world hate us and that gives them the justification to attack us. Speaking of Shelby Steele. He was on John Gibson's show on the Fox network yesterday afternoon, and you gotta get his book. We're going to interview him for The Limbaugh Letter the week after next, for our next issue. I want to give you just a little tidbit here, because Gibson says, "Explain this to me, Mr. Steele. How does white guilt have something to do with a situation like Iraq?"
STEELE: America as a great western power, the greatest western power in the world, is stigmatized by the past of the west -- colonialism from Europe, racism, slavery, segregation in America, and imperialism, so that when we exercise our power in the world, particularly our military power, we invoke that stigma, and we come off in the eyes of people who want to hold us accountable in this way as imperialists who want to occupy and oppress a small brown skinned country. And so to avoid that stigma and to make people see that we're not occupiers and we're not imperialists and we're no longer like what the west used to be, we practice war with a kind of minimalism that almost leaves a little room for the enemy to continue to fight us. We don't use all of our power because in using all of our power we would seem to be the old white supremacists of the past.
RUSH: Exactly right. But it gets manifested in far more obscene and dangerous ways in the little gray cells inside the skull of little munchkins like Russ Feingold. The guilt manifests itself in such a way that we are still committing these atrocities of imperialism and racism and bigotry and homophobia, etc, etc., etc., and so when we get hit, part of our foreign policy is learning how to blame ourselves. That's your modern day liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Here's one more. Gibson's next question, "A lot of people would think people of color would think white guilt's a good thing."
STEELE: It sounds like it would be a good thing, but it's not. It's the reverse of that. It's not a guilt of conscience where people struggle with a moral dilemma. It's simply running from the stigmatization as racists. Whites after the sixties, after the -- as I talk about in the book -- the collapsing of white supremacy, became stigmatized as racists and had to then begin dissociate from that and most of our racial policy in America has been more about helping whites sort of fight that stigma than doing anything to help achieve equality.
RUSH: Exactly right because the left doesn't really want equality. They need victims. They need oppressed minorities so they can continue to blame white bigots, they can maintain this overall feeling of guilt. You know, I think this whole notion of guilt, I think it explains public polling on the economy. You go out and you talk to anybody individually, and the odds are, life's never been better, they're more confident holding their jobs, it's going to improve. The statistics, the reality indicate this. And yet, those same people will be reluctant to say that because they think their neighbor, or even people in a different town they don't even know, are not doing well because they've been buying into the Drive-By Media hit pieces on this. So a guilt overcomes them. They don't want to tell people how good they're doing or how good they think the economy is because they feel so bad that it may not be good for other people. Ergo, you end up with a poll that is totally unrepresentative of the truth.
I mean, Shelby Steele has hit something here that is so -- I mean, one of the most brilliant things to me is simplicity. It's not saying something totally complex that nobody can understand. Brilliance is being able to synthesize what people think is a problem they can't get their arms around and making it so easily understandable that millions grasp it, and that's what he's done in this book. This whole concept that we have guilt over our achievement, guilt over our power, guilt over our past, guilt over our prosperity, our size and all, explains so much, including opinion polls about such things as the economy. One more bite here. Question from Gibson. "So, can you do almost anything in this country if you make white people afraid of being stigmatized as racists?"
STEELE: You have enormous power, absolutely. Whites simply do not feel they have the moral authority to ask for difficult things. For example, not a single president of the United States since the civil rights victories has asked black America to do anything on its own behalf in terms of achieving equality. All the requests are on white America, what whites must do, what institutions must do, so forth, what programs have to be instituted. There's never a president who has enough moral authority to look at his black citizens and say, "What happened to you in the past is terrible, but in order to move into the future, here's some things you're going to have to do."
RUSH: I don't think they don't have the moral authority. They don't have the moral courage. They don't have the guts. This is not a criticism, it's fact. There are a lot of people that do have the courage, and look what happens to them when they say it? I mean, I can remember back in the heat of the homeless debate, I would say something as simple as, "You know, train these people to get a job." And liberals would say, "Easy for you to say," as though I should feel guilty in advocating self-reliance or responsibility. I'm sure it's happened to some of you when you've been in conversations with people. So Shelby Steele here, right on the money. There's never a president who has enough moral authority to look at his black citizens and say, hey, what happened to you in the past is terrible but in order to move into the future you've got to do some things yourself. No, what we get is Bill Clinton proclaiming himself to be the first black president, apologizing all over the world for what we have supposedly done to people all over the world. He is the epitome of what Shelby Steele is talking about,
by the way.
END TRANSCRIPT
Read the Background Material...(AP: Feingold to Democrats: Stand Up to Bush)
(WSJ: White Guilt and the Western Past. Shelby Steele)
(RCP: The Prison of the Present - Victor Davis Hanson)
(WSJ: Calling for talks with Iran is just cheap talk - Amir Taheri)
(American Spectator: Left-Wing Unilateralism) Buy The Book... (White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era - Shelby Steele)
*Note: Links to content outside Rush Limbaugh.com usually become inactive over time. Rush Limbaugh.com ** Russ Feingold: Terrorism Is Our Fault
Posted by yaahoo_2006iest
at 5:04 AM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, 10 May 2006 5:24 AM EDT
silly
Drive-By Media Falls for Mahmoud's Letter
So in order, Iran's president threw a -- and I told you the media would love this guy. I told you that the media could be played by this guy, that he would be looked at as the peace broker, the man who cares. That Bush would be portrayed as obstinate and uninterested. They know who their allies are in the Middle East in this country, the Democratic Party, the Drive-By Media. So from the 
Then here's another 
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Here's the 
irritated
Aid Workers Are Said to Abuse Girls 
By 
in camps for displaced people and in neighborhoods whose residents have returned after being driven away by war. They said men in positions of authority - aid workers and soldiers, government employees and officials in the camps - were abusing girls.
"All of the respondents clearly stated that the scale of the problem affected over half of the girls in their locations," the report said. "The girls reportedly ranged in age from 8 to 18 years, with girls of 12 years and upward described as being regularly involved in 'selling sex,' commonly referred to as 'man business.'" 
In a statement from Liberia, the United Nations said that eight cases of sexual abuse and exploitation involving its workers had been reported since the beginning of the year and that one staff member had been suspended, Reuters reported.
"It's unacceptable behavior," Jordan Ryan, the United Nations' humanitarian coordinator in Liberia, said in an interview with BBC radio from Monrovia, the Liberian capital.
Save the Children said Liberia and the United Nations should set up an office to investigate cases of the sexual exploitation and to work to ensure that the behavior stops, prosecuting the offenders, among other steps.
It also said United Nations workers accused of sexual exploitation should "go through judicial proceedings," and if found guilty, should not be sent elsewhere as peacekeepers.
Isn't the UN such a wonderful organization?
My we are so lucky it exists to solve the world's problems.
loud
are scheming to change the U.S. Constitution without complying with the amendment process.
The Constitution requires that a president be elected by a majority of votes in the Electoral College, with each state's vote weighted based on its population. But some who took an oath to defend our Constitution are plotting to undermine its essential structure by a compact among as few as 11 of the most populous states.
The plan of this Campaign for the National Popular Vote is to get states with at least 270 votes in the Electoral College to enact identical bills requiring their own electors to ignore the winner of their state's election and cast all their state's ballots for the candidate who the state believes received more popular votes than the other candidates nationwide, even if he fails to win a majority of the popular vote.
The campaign gang of frustrated liberals has lined up sponsors for bills in California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana and Missouri. They have already persuaded the Colorado Senate to approve their proposal
.
It's ridiculous and un-American to try to force electors to vote against their constituents. Yet the campaign proposes requiring a state like Louisiana to vote for the candidate who won in other states such as New York.
The U.S. Constitution established the method of electing presidents and it has served us well for more than two centuries. It isn't broke and doesn't need fixing.
The Electoral College represents the inspired genius of our Founding Fathers. It was part of the great compromise the transformed the country from 13 rival colonies into a constitutional republic.
This great compromise gave the United States a Congress consisting of the Senate based on equal representation of the states and a House of Representatives based on population. The Electoral College is the mirror image of this brilliant compromise and allows all states to be players in the process of electing the president.
The Electoral College is the successful vehicle by which a presidential candidate achieves a majority in a functioning political process. The Campaign for the National Popular Vote is an outrageous proposal to construct a fake majority by stealing votes away from some candidates and transferring them to another candidate.
Because of third parties, we've had many elections (including three of the last four) when no presidential candidate received a popular-vote majority. Abraham Lincoln won less than 40 percent of the popular vote and relied on his Electoral College majority for his authority.
Basing the election on a plurality of the popular vote while ignoring the states would be like the New York Yankees claiming they won the 1960 World Series because they outscored the Pirates in runs 55-27 and in hits 91-60. No one challenges the fact that the Pirates fairly won that Series, 4 games to 3.
The fact that most elections are very close makes the Electoral College particularly advantageous. With our loose election procedures (that need to be reformed in several ways), it's easy to make credible charges of election fraud. We remember the Florida recount in 2000 and the attempt to recount Ohio in 2004.
If the popular vote were controlling, chaos would be the predictable result in any close election.
An allegation of voter fraud in one state would begin a fatal chain reaction of challenges and recounts as campaign managers try to scrape up additional hundreds of votes in many states at once.
The elimination of the Electoral College would overnight make irrelevant the votes of Americans in about 25 states because candidates would zero in on piling up votes in large-population states.
Big-city machines would take over, and candidates from California or New York would enjoy a built-in advantage.
The Electoral College provides an essential safeguard against the democratic factionalism decried by James Madison in 
The slogan for the Campaign for the National Popular Vote, "Every Vote Equal," is stunningly dishonest because the campaign's proposal is based on legalizing vote-stealing and on changing the rules of presidential elections by a compact of as few as 11 states instead of the 38 states needed to amend the Constitution. The campaign should be repudiated before it goes any further.
The campaign proposal would also eliminate the constitutional role of Congress in dealing with the occasional happenstance of a candidate failing to get a majority of Electoral College votes. The Constitution dealt adequately with this problem in 1824.
The Campaign for the National Popular Vote plan has been editorially endorsed by the New York Times, which called the Electoral College "an antidemocratic relic." The New York Times could demonstrate its devotion to democracy by adopting a democratic one share-one vote system of control of its own newspaper instead of its current system that locks in a preferential voting category for the Sulzberger family holdings.
Patrick Kennedy
Bonds said no when asked at his press conference if he would sign the ball. Afterward, Bonds shook Oliveras' hand and took a picture with him.
Wagner blasts Phillies: Former Phillies closer Billy Wagner had people talking two days before his return to Citizens Bank Park for the first time since signing with the Mets as a free agent. In a story in Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer Wagner claiming he wasn't liked by teammates after he criticized them for their lackluster play in an interview last season. Wagner recalled a team meeting after his critical comments became public and told the Inquirer it was "24 against one."
Autographed ball sells for $191,200: A baseball signed by Yankees great Joe DiMaggio and actress Marilyn Monroe sold for $191,200 in a sports memorabilia auction in Dallas. Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions for Heritage Auction Galleries, said that the ball is the only known baseball autographed by both the Hall of Famer and the actress with her name as "Marilyn Monroe."
Bumps and bruises: Brewers righthander Ben Sheets missed his scheduled start against the Dodgers because of stiffness in his shoulder. ... The Athletics placed outfielder Milton Bradley on the 15-day disabled list, because of a strained muscle in his right side. ... The Pirates placed third baseman Joe Randa on the 15-day DL, retroactive to May 2. ... The Astros placed Chris Burke on the 15-day DL.
Inside corner: Florida has been outscored 61-35 while losing the past 10 home games. ... Outfielder Matt Lawton has asked the Mariners to release him.
It sickens me that Bonds is being celebrated for this. He represents all that is wrong in baseball.
d'oh
By 
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Calvin Reddick, left, pumps gas into his car on May 1, 2006 in Honolulu. Gov. Linda Lingle says she sees no plausible situation in which she would ever use her power to bring back the state's cap on wholesale gasoline prices, which are set to become history as early as this weekend. >>>>>
Hawaii Gas Cap Running on Fumes
HONOLULU -- Gas prices keep going up everywhere, and Hawaii's unique attempt to control them is running on fumes.
The isolated island state whose drivers consistently pay the highest pump prices in the nation has given up on its government-regulated price controls after an eight-month experiment.
With the average price for regular in Hawaii rising above $3.38 per gallon Friday, lawmakers have sent to Gov. Linda Lingle a law to suspend the cap that sought to keep the oil companies in check and give a fair price to customers.
Bad timing with rising oil prices, outrage among island motorists, industry lobbying and public pressure in an election year combined to scuttle the nation's only state attempt to cap the cost of fuel.
"In a lot of people's minds, they thought the gas cap wasn't working," said Sen. Paul Whalen, a strong supporter of the law. "It was hard to generate lots of support for it because ... we're paying more than we ever were before."
Hawaii first imposed weekly limits on wholesale gas prices Sept. 1 based on the average of prices in Los Angeles, New York and the Gulf Coast. Then allowances were added for what it costs wholesalers to ship to Hawaii and distribute gas to more remote islands.
Price caps differed for each island. There was no cap on the markup added by gas stations.
Some opponents argued that the state's limit on gas prices actually helped the oil companies boost profits because they knew they could charge up to the maximum allowed.
Another problem was that it was hard to tell whether the law did any good.
"It's ridiculous. Prices jumped up 20 cents in the last couple of days," said Calvin Reddick, who paid $15 for just over four gallons of gas for his Volkswagon Beetle. "Usually when you have a cap, it's supposed to freeze prices off. Obviously, their idea of a cap is different from mine."
Because the oil refiners keep their profit margins and costs private, it was difficult for even experts to determine whether residents were paying more or less than they would without the gas cap
.
One study by an economics professor showed the gas cap cost consumers 5 cents more per gallon.
An analysis by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism estimated that island motorists paid $54.9 million more than they otherwise would have in the first five months under the cap.
But research by cap supporter Rep. Marcus Oshiro indicated the limits saved drivers $33 million.
"It was a failure, and other experts that have looked at it have said the same thing," said Anita Mangels, a spokeswoman for the Western States Petroleum Association, which represents ChevronTexaco and Shell Oil. "It was well-intended, but apparently according to the state's own agency has not served consumers well."
With customer unrest mounting and aggressive oil company lobbying, lawmakers felt they had to do something before the November election and before prices went up further
.
Rather than forcing down gas prices with a lower price ceiling, the state's mostly Democratic Legislature suspended the cap and gave Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, who had opposed any regulation of gas prices, the power to bring it back if she decides fuel has gotten too expensive
"Going into an election year, they weren't willing to support gas pricing regulations, given the concerns of many people in the public, and I think the oil companies did a good job of blaming the pricing regulations for the high prices," said Sen. Ron Menor, chief advocate of the gas cap.
At the same time, the law provides for computation of a hypothetical gas cap using a new formula expected to be about 16 cents a gallon lower than the current one. The revised calculation will include prices from low-cost Singapore, and it will disqualify the highest-priced market from the average of the four regions.
"It will remain as a flashing sign that will remind Hawaii's consumers what the price would have been under the gas cap," said Scott Foster, a spokesman for Hawaii Advocates for Consumer Rights. "The more information we get, the more we can understand about how the industry has been gouging us."
Other parts of the law lifting the controls require the oil companies to make their wholesale pricing information public so that customers could compare pump prices with actual costs. Currently, that information is kept confidential by the companies.
"We understand that people desire to know what the situation is," said Albert Chee, a spokesman for Chevron. "No one can claim exactly what the effect has been. I don't know if following of mainland prices has better served our customers."
Even though the gas cap has been suspended, it isn't going away.
Lawmakers said it has inspired interest from other states that want to try to hold down soaring gas prices.
"We're going to be talking about gas prices for a long time. The president is looking into it, Congress is looking into it," said Sen. Will Espero, a steady backer of regulating the oil industry. "This issue is a complicated and complex matter that doesn't have an easy, simple solution."
On the Net: 
When she hits the presidential campaign trail next year, 2008 White House hopeful Hillary Clinton is planning to sell herself to the nation as a common sense, iron-willed, family values candidate.
So says Newsweek's Howard Fineman, who says he uncovered the daring strategy during a recent conversation with longtime Clinton advisor James Carville.
He writes: "As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton looks for a basic sales pitch after what is likely to be a sweeping reelection victory in her New York Senate race this fall, she's going to play a part that comes naturally to her: hard-eyed realist in a world of dreamers ...
"She's the one who kept her family together - its finances, its marriage, most of its parenting function," Fineman notes - credentials that he says will be key to Hillary's appeal.
Of Hillary's image as wife and mother, the Newsweek scribe reports: "That is the role she will cast herself in as she tries to win the White House."
"After eight years of what she will call the perhaps worthy but disastrously administered dreams of George Bush, it's time to restore some discipline," says Fineman, adding:
"Think of the iron-willed mom in 'Malcolm in the Middle.'"
Biden, Matthews Yuck It Up
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
BIDEN: I don't want to be that sucker in prison. I don't want to be that guy in an American prison. If you want to say how to punish somebody, put Zarqawi [sic] in a prison with a bunch of red-blooded American criminals. Criminals. Put him in there for live -- and guarantee under no circumstances, no circumstances, could he get out of prison. I think that boy is about to have, as we Catholics say, an epiphany. I think he's about to find out (laughing) that he may not have gotten the better end of the deal.
MATTHEWS: Do you think he'll survive for long in prison, senator?
BIDEN: I think it's not going to be an easy road for him.
RUSH: Did I just hear what I think I heard? Did I just hear Joe Biden and Matthews yucking it up over the fact that "Zarqawi" is going to be tortured in jail? Did I just hear that? I think I just heard that, folks. I think we all just heard that together. (interruption) Well, he's talking about Moussaoui, I know. He doesn't know who it is. It doesn't matter. We all know who he's talking about. He's talking about Moussaoui. Okay, I don't care if he's going to be lockdown 23 hours. I don't care about any of that? These guys are hoping. This comment, when the sensitive and caring and proper and understanding Joe Biden, liberal Democrat says, "He may not have gotten the better end of the deal," you can't fool me. I know exactly what he's talking about. It's the old bend-over-forward-and-grab-the-ankles-in-prison time.
and in that one, if he gets tortured -- and they're hoping for it -- we're going to blow all this goodwill, senator. I am stunned. I couldn't believe I was hearing what I was hearing when I heard it. But I did hear it. I heard it, and I was right. One more from Kristen Breitweiser. This pretty much sums it up. Matthews asked her, "Do you have a comment on what you've just been listening to, Kristen?"
BREITWEISER: I would appreciate someone asking either Senator Biden or former Mayor Giuliani if their standard for death is withholding information from the FBI that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks, how would you explain George Tenet who withheld information about two of the 9/11 hijackers for 18 months from the FBI -- information that certainly would have gone a long way, uh, into preventing this attack --
RUSH: Alright.
BREITWEISER: -- and I'd like to know where are we drawing the line here?
RUSH: Yeah. Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm.
BREITWEISER: What is the threshold, and why are we not holding those types of people in our government accountable?
RUSH: Well, let me tell you who those people are. Ever hear of the name 
chatty
Donald Hitchcock (left) was fired May 2 as the Democratic Party's gay outreach adviser. His partner, Paul Yandura, said the move was in retaliation for a letter Yandura wrote accusing DNC Chair Howard Dean of failing to take adequate steps to defend gay rights. >>>>>
Dean fires Dems' gay outreach chief
Shakeup follows criticism by partner; Bond named replacement
Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean fired the party's gay outreach adviser Donald Hitchcock on May 2 less than a week after Hitchcock's domestic partner, Paul Yandura, a longtime party activist, 
former Democratic Party operative Brian Bond to replace Hitchcock as executive director of the party's Gay Lesbian Leadership Council, according to DNC spokesperson Karen Finney, who called Bond a "proven leader."
Bond served from 1997 to 2003 as executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, a bipartisan national group that raises money and provides training to help elect openly gay candidates to public office.
"It was not retaliation," Finney said of Hitchcock's dismissal. "It was decided we needed a change. We decided to hire a proven leader."
Hitchcock confirmed that Dean informed him May 2 through a surrogate that he had been terminated. He said he was considering consulting an attorney to decide whether to contest the firing.
"This is retaliation, plain and simple," said Yandura. "This shows what they think about domestic partners."
Yandura said Dean was using Hitchcock as a "scapegoat" for problems of Dean's own making.
"All I did was ask questions about what the party and Dean are doing about its GLBT constituency," Yandura said. "I have yet to see any answers."
Hitchcock's dismissal came after Yandura created a stir among party activists, both gay and straight, by sending an open letter on April 20 to gay Democrats criticizing Dean and the party for not getting involved in state ballot measures seeking to ban gay marriage.
Yandura charged that the DNC failed to counter efforts by Republicans to promote the anti-gay ballot measures as a wedge issue to win elections. He suggested that gays withhold donations to the Democrats until the party formally addresses issues he raised.
Finney said Dean and party leaders were developing plans to address efforts by Republicans to push for constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. She said Dean and DNC high-level staffers met last week with officials from national gay rights groups to discuss strategy for opposing the ballot measures.
Longtime party activists
Bond 'snatched away'
"This was not necessarily Donald's fault," said this source. "He never received the confidence of Dean and high-level DNC officials that someone like Bond is certain to receive," the source said.
Hitchcock disputes this assessment. "I never had any bad performance review or anyone telling me I was not doing a good job," he said.
He said DNC officials Tom McMahon and Leah Daughtry said at the time they informed him of his dismissal on May 2 that the decision to let him go "was not in the works for several weeks" but had been made within the past few days.
Hitchcock said the firing came after McMahon and Daughtry asked him to resign and he refused.
More clout in DNC?
Andy Tobias, the DNC treasurer, considered the party's highest ranking openly gay official, said he was sorry to see Hitchcock leave his post at the DNC, but declined to comment on whether his departure was a form of retaliation by Dean.
"Donald is terrific," Tobias said. "I will miss working with him, and I'm really sorry this didn't work out," he said. "Brian is also terrific, and I think he'll bring our community even more clout within the DNC, which we deserve. Now, let's go out and win some elections."
Tobias said he respects and admires Yandura's work for the party in the past and understands his frustration over the Republicans' use of anti-gay ballot initiatives as a device to win elections.
"Paul is terrific, but I deeply disagree with his approach," Tobias said. "Paul and I have talked several times, and I let him know we are eager to receive all suggestions that will enhance the dignity and rights of the GLBT community, and at the same time enhance our chances of winning the elections or at least not diminish the chances."
According to Tobias, Yandura has responded to his inquires by repeatedly saying the party has to figure out on its own how to respond to the anti-gay ballot measures.
"It's not so easy to come up with these answers. But we are all ears," Tobias said. "We welcome anything he or others can suggest."
Dean's latest gay headache
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Dean said the new system would be an improvement over the previous system, and that the party would expand its gay outreach efforts.
But some gay Democrats were 
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DNC officials insisted then that the six-page grassroots report issued by Dean was intended to be a brief, preliminary account of Dean's plan to rebuild the party by strengthening its field operation in all 50 states.
Then, six weeks ago, gay rights leaders met with eight prominent Democratic senators to